Chapter Two'Reporter to Investigator'

When Sean left school at the age of 15 years, instead of going on to college as his parents hoped he would, he secured a job as a trainee reporter with the 'Munster Express' in Waterford. Sean loved reading and had a way with interpreting words that was beguiling to observe. Although a cub reporter, his reputation was growing fast. His investigative skills were second to none and he could sniff out the truth of a good story ready to be unearthed without effort and smell a fraud or a half truth almost instantly. It wasn't the capacity to twist the words of another or to exaggerate and spin their truth into an unrecognisable thread that he excelled in and, which is often associated with the traits of his profession, but instead, the ability to weave the words of another into a garment of truth that fitted the person who'd first uttered them much better than they had done originally.By the age of twenty one years, Sean had made a big name for himself with the number of newspaper scoops he'd managed to secure and, instead of him following on the coat tails of more senior reporters with the 'Munster Express', it was from him that they were taking their lead! The editor would always hold the front page until the very last moment, to see if Sean had scooped again before he instructed his presses to 'Roll'.

While Sean proved himself to be an undoubted wordsmith in writing up a story for his newspaper to print, it was his skill at 'investigative journalism' that really brought him to the attention of other rivals who wanted to poach him from the 'Munster Express'. After being with the 'Munster Express' for almost six years, in July, 1951 he was offered a job by the beer magnets, Guinness. Sean politely declined the Guinness offer, saying that his present employers had been good to him and had kindly given him his first real job in life, so would stay with them a while longer.

Two weeks after declining the offer of work from Guinness, they approached Sean again. This time, however, their approach was made after having first been in talks with Sean's employer at the 'Munster Express', so Sean knew that this time, the offer from Guinness had the support of his employer behind it.

"We have a special project in mind, Sean, that our chairman, Sir Hugh Beaver wants to get off the ground. It involves the publication of a special kind of book that has never been published before and, to put it bluntly, we want you involved in it. However, the position offered to you will remain undisclosed to everyone else outside you, your employer, Sir Hugh and me. You shall remain in the background to counter or confirm the details produced by our official fact finders and verifiers, the McWhirter twins, Norris and Ross, who have been secured to head the project. I hope that you don't mind the fact that it will be they who will take the glory for the published edition of the book. They won't know of your involvement and never will know that you have been working in the background, checking their verifications through your own investigations."

"Indeed, we are so keen to use your investigative skills that you have so adequately displayed over the past five years at the 'Munster Express', that we have come to an arrangement with your current employer, subject to your approval of course, for them to 'lease your services to us' for the next four years.You are our favourite investigator; our Sherlock Holmes of the press world. In short, you will officially remain employed by the 'Munster Express' and receive your usual salary from them, plus a bonus of £10,000 a year from Guinness for the first three years and, with an additional completion-of-contract bonus of £50,000 if you are successful in helping us to launch our project before the end of 1955 to our level of satisfaction. Meanwhile, we have agreed to pay your present employer double your current wages so they can employ at least one more reporter in your place. What do you say?"

Looking at the smiling face of his editor who was party to this secret offer being made, Sean replied, "You have a deal!" and shook the proposer's hand. "Tell Sir Hugh, I'm his man for the next four years."

"You must never reveal your part in this, Sean," his editor remarked.

"I won't," Sean replied. "For an extra £10,000 a year and the prospect of another £50,000 at the satisfactory conclusion of the task, I'll take the money and leave the glory to the McWhirter twins!"

Sean soon learned that his services with Guinness would involve using every investigative skill he had acquired over his years as a journalist. The planned book was not envisaged as a moneymaking product and really only came about on the whim of Sir Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of Guinness Breweries. Sean was given a time span of four years of helping to confirm and verify enough world records in time to publish the book in 1955.

The man from Guinness told Sean that Sir Hugh Beaver and the board wanted to print 1,000 copies of this new book; all of which would be 'given away' to Guinness clientele. Sean was told that the usual business objectives of making the book publication commercially profitable would not apply in this instance, as the aim was to supply the reader with facts and not booze.

It would seem that the project was first conceived in 1951, when Sir Hugh Beaver went on a shooting party by the River Slaney in County Wexford. During this outing, he became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the Koshin Golden Plover or the Grouse. That evening at Castlebridge House (10-11-51), he realised that it was impossible to confirm in a reference book whether the Golden Plover was indeed Europe's fastest game bird. Sir Hugh Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions posed nightly throughout Ireland in homes, debating societies and public houses, and where there was no book or authority in the world with which to settle such arguments and provide acceptable answers. He realised there and then that a book supplying the answers to these sorts of questions might prove highly popular, so he became determined to get one produced which dealt specifically with verifiable 'records'.

It was initially intended to research and publish an index of as many world achievements that could be established and authentically verified. This envisaged 'book of world records' required tip-top investigators of facts and figures who were already recognised and accepted by their peers and public for the accuracy of their stated facts. Sir Hugh personally realised just how difficult a task this might prove, so he sought the secret backup of an investigator renowned for his skills as well as his objectivity, honesty and integrity. It was to be Sean's specific task to verify all of the claimed records that were to be printed in the published edition and, he was given a blank chequebook to cover his expenses wherever his quest took him.

Sean had seemingly landed a dream job; one that paid him to travel the world and to test out and verify the claimants of world records in 'this' and 'that'. It was a job that paid him well to do that which he loved doing best; establishing the facts and learning the truth.He would never forget those astonishing fetes and human quirks of mankind and nature, places of sheer wonderment and awe that he saw, along with haunting scenes of beauty. He would always feel fortunate for having seen places and things he would never have seen, had this opportunity to travel the globe been denied to him.

Over the next four years, Sean literally travelled millions of miles back and forth across the globe. He saw more countries than he ever imagined being able to travel to in his wildest dreams and observed the establishing and breaking of all manner of records both daring and dangerous, funny and frivolous, tantalising yet tragic! Sean saw more in his four years of travel in this task than most people could ever hope to see in their lifetime.

It did not seem to matter how frivolous or outright dangerous the record-breaking attempts of people appeared to be, the brief that had been given to the McWhirter twins by Sir Hugh was to make no attempt to moralise, condemn or condone. Their task was simply to observe, record and verify. Sean's task, wherever possible, was to confirm the 'facts' as presented by the McWhirter twins in their book of records without them ever knowing that he'd done so.

Over this period Sean was to see the tallest, shortest, fattest, thinnest, hairiest, most muscular, most tattooed, 'most this' and 'most that' man, woman and child in the world, which he verified across the globe from Tibet to Timbuktu. It never failed to amaze him as to what people would put themselves through, just to have their record for this or that recognised in the 'Guinness Book Of Records'. Often, the record, which took the participants the best part of a lifetime to achieve might be broken and a new record set, before there had even been the opportunity to first see their record in book print!